Timothée Vergne, ENVT project coordinator visited live bird markets in Ha Noi

Avian influenza (AI), endemic in many Eurasian, African, and American countries, are a persistent threat to public health, food security, farmer livelihoods, and the economy. Live bird markets (LBM) surveillance is an important facet of a comprehensive AI detection and monitoring strategy.

FAO Viet Nam ECTAD collaborate with École National Vétérinaire Toulouse (ENVT) and CIRAD (Centre for International Cooperation in Agricultural Research for Development) to estimate the performance of various surveillance protocols and to provide recommendations to the Department of Animal Health (DAH) on optimized approaches to detect the emergence of new viral subtypes of avian influenza early. DAH – FAO LBM surveillance data, collected under project supported by USAID in collaboration with Department of Animal Health (DAH) between 2016 and 2022, will be analysed together with AI surveillance data from Lao PDR, Cambodia, Myanmar and Indonesia using Bayesian latent class model to consider the diversity of sampling strategies across countries. The model outputs will allow quantitatively estimating the sensitivity and specificity of multiple sampling methods to different AI virus types, and determining the optimal sample combination to maximize AIV detection while minimizing the sampling effort.

The project team from ENVT including Timothée Vergne and Brandon Hayes visited Viet Nam from 30 January through 4 February 2023 to introduce the project to DAH, develop surveillance database and visit LBM around Hanoi to better understand the structure of the commercial network and how avian influenza virus monitoring is carried out.